There are conventional valve opening/closing timing control devices in which a fluid pressure chamber is formed by a drive-side rotating body and a driven-side rotating body, the drive-side rotating body synchronously rotating relative to a crankshaft and the driven-side rotating body being disposed coaxially with respect to the drive-side rotating body and synchronously rotating with a camshaft; the fluid pressure chamber is partitioned into a retard chamber and an advance chamber by a partition section provided to the driven-side rotating body; a working fluid is fed to/discharged from the retard chamber and the advance chamber; and the relative rotational phase of the driven-side rotating body relative to the drive-side rotating body is controlled.
In a valve opening/closing timing control device of this type, it is necessary to prevent leakage of the working fluid between the retard chamber and the advance chamber. For example, in the valve opening/closing timing control device according to Patent Document 1, a seal member (“seal material” in the document) is arranged at a position of a partition section (“vane” in the document) facing the drive-side rotating body (“housing” in the document) or the driven-side rotating body (“vane member” in the document), and to a position of the drive-side rotating body or the driven-side rotating body facing the partition section; and a biasing member (“metallic spring” in the document) for undergoing elastic deformation and exerting a biasing function biases, from the partition section side towards the drive-side rotating body side or the driven-side rotating body side, the seal member arranged on the partition section, and biases, from the drive-side rotating body side or the driven-side rotating body side towards the partition-section, the seal member provided to the drive-side rotating body side or the driven-side rotating body side.
Also, in the valve opening/closing timing control device according to Patent Document 1, the biasing member is integrally bonded to the seal member, with an aim to increase the ease of work when affixing the seal member and the biasing member to the drive-side rotating body or to the driven-side rotating body, and to prevent any instances of negligence in which the biasing member is not affixed. Examples of integral bonding between the seal member and the metallic spring described in the document include insert molding and a method in which a protrusion is formed on the seal member, the protrusion is fitted into a loose hole formed on the metallic spring, and a distal end section of the protrusion is crushed using heat to prevent dislodgement.
A similar technique is also disclosed in Patent Document 2. In a valve opening/closing timing control device according to Patent Document 2, a seal member and a biasing member are integrally formed by injection molding from a synthetic resin. Also, polyphenylene sulfide resin, carbon fiber, and polytetrafluoroethylene are adopted as the synthetic resin, whereby it is possible to obtain an increase in the oil resistance of the seal member, an increase in the biasing force of the biasing member, and a reduction in the friction coefficient of the seal member.